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“Please, Shrimpo?”
“No.”
“I- b- pleeeeaase?”
Shrimpo groaned, storming his way through Gardenview with a begging Cosmo on his tail. “No!!”
“But Sprout is sick and I have so much to bake for the party tomorrow and everyone else is busy and- and-.” The cake explained, a little desperate, hands clasped together in a plea. “I’ll be your best friend!”
Shrimpo shot a scolding glare over his shoulder. “No.” He gritted out his refusal for the millionth time, baring his teeth. Cosmo flinched back, but remained resilient. Frustratingly.
“What can I say to convince you? I just need a little help, I can’t do it all on my own, and I-“ He started rambling again, but quickly cut himself off as an idea sprang into his head. “Actually, I know exactly how to convince you!”
Uh oh. Shrimpo didn’t like that tone.
“What?” He snapped, stopping his aimless attempt at outrunning him to actually turn to face the cake.
As soon as he did so, he was tackled.
He landed with a shriek on the floor and immediately shot to life, struggling against the arms wrapping themselves around his torso.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Shrimpo barked, tone both angry and panicked, though he wouldn’t admit the last part.
Cosmo chuckled lightly, easily keeping the shorter Toon contained as he shouted and flailed around. Though it took a little maneuvering, he managed to sit upright — on Shrimpo’s waist, legs trapping his arms. “Convincing you!” He chimed, his partly uncharacteristic cheeriness only further agitating the shrimp.
“GET OFF!! FUCK YOU!!”
Cosmo tsked lightly, though the smirk on his face softened with affection, and poised his clawed hands above Shrimpo’s stomach. “Rude. I’m not gonna hurt you, silly. I just need you to help me out a little! Last chance to take the easy way out and say yes?”
Shrimpo calmed just enough to give a dry, flat glare and respond, “No.”
A sigh. “Alright, your funeral.”
“MY W—!?”
Promptly, all ten of Cosmo’s fingers dug firmly into the shrimp’s tummy and squeezed, and what resulted was possibly the loudest (and funniest) sound Shrimpo had ever made.
“AAIEEHEHE- NOHOHAAHA— FUHUHUCK! STAHAHAP!!”
Cosmo audibly gasped, lightening up his touch on instinct. “Oh! Oh- pfft- oh wow. I mean, I thought you’d be ticklish, but I didn’t think you’d be this ticklish.” He meant it as more of an awed observation than a tease, but the way the other’s face lit up informed him it came across as far more of the latter. Well, he definitely wasn’t complaining about the misunderstanding, given the sight of him all red was frankly adorable. But, uh, back to the matter at hand.
“GehehEAHA- SHUHUT UHUHUP—!” Shrimpo whined between cackles, legs uselessly kicking up a storm, and arms tugging desperately against the limbs trapping them. “Snrt- WAHAIT! WAIT! S-SOMEWHERE EHEHELSE- GOHOHO SOMEWHEHEHEHEHAHAA-!!”
“Ohoh, you’re telling me how to tickle you, now?” Cosmo exclaimed melodramatically, already getting giddy off this power trip. When he was met with no response other than more laughter, he gave an overplayed sigh and crawled his fingers up to the shrimp’s ribs. As predicted, this was met with a rise in the pitch of Shrimpo’s giggles, as well as more complaining.
“NONONO- NAHA- NAHAT THEHEHERE EITHEHER!!”
Cosmo couldn’t help laughing along a little, very much enjoying the current situation and, admittedly, partly forgetting why they were in it to begin with. “Where then?”
Shrimpo shook his head frantically, his thrashing slowly dulling down to squirming against his assailant, his body quickly giving in to the fingers digging harshly into the spots between each rib. “IHIHEHE DON’T KNOHOHOW! NOWHEHEHERE- EEAHAHA! JUST STAHAHAHAP!!”
“I will! I just need you to say yes to my little favor, remember?” Cosmo oh-so-graciously reminded him (and himself), pausing the tickles to allow him a chance to respond.
“AHAhauhuh, shihihit..”
Shrimpo, given the brief pause, went limp and gulped down air like a surfaced fish. He still had a dorky grin plastered to his face, cheeks flushed rosier than usual, and extra giggles falling from his lips.
…Cute.
“Noho.”
Cosmo blinked, his own face flushing as he realized what he’d been thinking. Not the time, Cosmo. “W-what?”
“I sahaid no- mmh. No deal.” Shrimpo repeated, as coldly as he could muster, still breathless but regaining his strength.
Cosmo frowned. “Fine, then. I wasn’t going to do this, but you leave me no choice.”
The shrimp’s calmness quickly shattered, and he was panicking again in a matter of seconds. “Wait-! W-wahait what- What are youhu-!?”
Cosmo leaned down, took in a dramatic breath, and blew a raspberry right on the center of Shrimpo’s tummy.
He screamed.
“AAEEIHEHEAHA—!! NOHOHO-! PFFTAAHAAAHAIIIEEEEHEHE—! AHA- snrt- COHOHOSMOHOHO!!” Just like that, Shrimpo was kicking and writhing again, his laughter the loudest it’d gotten yet. Cosmo trailed raspberries up to his ribs, finding a sweet spot at the side. He got to a total of six before Shrimpo wrenched one of his arms free and shoved his head away, startling the cake roll into stopping completely.
“Ack-! Hey!”
His second arm came free, and the shrimp was holding his shoulders and…
And they were practically lying on each other, and Shrimpo was beaming, and he looked so pretty, and…
“Plehehease, pleehease..! Haah…” The shrimp giggled, head tipping back, too loopy and tickledrunk to realize any of what he was doing. Cosmo’s heart fluttered, the cockiness quickly draining out of his body to make way for a swarm of butterflies.
“Ah… I, uh..” He sat up slowly, watching Shrimpo come to his senses and catch his breath.
He jolted, floundered, and started struggling again. “Okay, okay! I’ll help! Just- just stahap.”
Right, right. Help. Cosmo nodded quickly and got off of him, clearing his throat in the awkward silence. “Great! Uhm, we’ve already wasted a lot of time, so let’s go!”
Shrimpo shot him a glare, but took the hand he offered to help him get up, and didn’t let go of it while Cosmo led him to the kitchen, steadying his breathing and rubbing phantom tickles from his poor torso in the meantime. “Whohose fault is that?”
Cosmo rolled his eyes lightheartedly. “Yeah, yeah, you liked it.”
He bristled. “I-... ugh, shut up.”
♡
helloworld56 Sat 02 Aug 2025 09:34AM UTC
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Hyperfixater6666 Sun 03 Aug 2025 02:15AM UTC
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